


Love At First Tranq

by Interrobang



Category: Original Work
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Based on a Tumblr Post, F/M, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 02:43:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17674916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Interrobang/pseuds/Interrobang
Summary: If she's your girl, why did she tag me and release me back into the wild for observation?





	Love At First Tranq

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a twitter post based on a tumblr post, and then it spiraled out of control.

**The couple looks as normal as almost any other couple. Jeremy — last name changed to protect his pack — is a striking, broad man in his late thirties. His skin is striped with scars of varying ages, but his eyes light up as he tells me their story.**

 

**Alina, in contrast, is a little more reserved. She was my first contact for this story, and at first she was reluctant to speak to me in detail. Now, however, she smiles as she holds her husband’s hand.**

 

“It’s really funny how we met, actually,” Jeremy says with a lopsided grin.

 

“I was in graduate school at the time,” Alina cuts in with a laugh, patting her husband’s hand. Her ring gleams against her dark skin, matching the one on a chain around Jeremy’s neck. “I was working on a conservation study — tag and release, you know — and then Jay comes along —”

 

— 

 

_ The woods were green and wet and fresh and bright, so bright in the wolf’s nose. He was surrounded by the scents of the forest: tender spring growth, newborn animals in their dens, hunting mothers and flying things just back from migration.  _

 

_ Jeremy was lost in the dream-like intensity of it all. He bounded over logs and ditches, tangles of vines and clusters of flowers. There was a scent running through it all. Something comforting, something enticing. It was the best thing Jeremy had ever smelled, and he needed to chase it down. _

 

_ He ran until the smell got stronger. It was overpowering, all-encompassing in its intensity. And then came the sounds: unmistakably the noise of humans, floundering where they should not be. This far out in the woods it was unlikely they were there for a simple walk, and so Jeremy padded along more cautiously, sneaking through the bushes and grass to observe. _

 

_ It was a gaggle of people outfitted in hiking gear with huge backpacks and bags of equipment. One of them held a weird-looking gun. _

 

_ Jeremy froze. Hunters. His mother had warned him. Werewolves could never be caught. A gunshot wound would be fatal for him whether he had four legs or two. _

 

_ Yet the smell persisted. It was enticing, powerful, calling to Jeremy like a siren song. _

 

_ He took a step out of the underbrush. Cautiously, slowly, stepping tenderly on the rain-rotten twigs under his paws.  _

 

crack

 

_ He froze. The humans looked up. The humans stopped what they were doing. _

 

_ The humans looked at Jeremy. Jeremy looked at the humans. One of the humans — dark skin, dark hair, shining brown eyes set in a determined squint — raised her gun at him. _

 

—

 

“Beautiful day, beautiful scenery, and then I see  _ her _ .”

 

Alina laughs. “He likes to say it was love at first sight.”

 

**And you?**

 

“Maybe not,” she admits with a grimace. “He was gorgeous, of course, but —”

  
“Next thing I know,” Jeremy cuts in. “She’s shot me with a tranq gun. Woke up —  oh, an hour later? Yeah, something like that — with this big tag in my ear.”

 

Alina’s smile is sheepish now. Her hand tightens around Jeremy’s. “I didn’t know!”

 

—

_ “Of all things,” the alpha of the Carrow pack spat. “You had to get tagged. Tagged!” _

 

_ “I didn’t  _ mean  _ to,” Jeremy whined. He cowered under his mother’s withering stare. His ear throbbed. The tag was heavy, pulling on his lobe. The physical wound would heal soon enough, but the embarrassment would last plenty longer. _

 

_ Mavis Carrow turned to her son. “You are twenty-five years old,” she said. “I have taught you everything you know. How old were you when I first took you out to the reserve?” _

 

_ “Six,” Jeremy said dejectedly. _

 

_ “And what did I tell you?” She raised an eyebrow imperiously. _

 

_ “If you see humans, run the other way.” _

 

_ “ _ Yes _ , Jeremy, go the  _ other  _ way. Why on earth did you run  _ towards  _ them this time?” _

 

_ Jeremy threw his hands up in the air. The tag swung heavily, slapping against his cheek. “Something — she smelled really good. Really  _ really  _ good. Like you used to tell me Dad smelled for you.” _

 

_ “Oh Jeremy.” The alpha’s expression softened. “My darling child. I met your father at a state fair. He worked at a hot dog stand. Of course he smelled good.” _

 

_ “No, she —” Jeremy sputtered, going pink. He started to sprout fur in his haste to explain away his shame. “She smelled like — like home.” _

 

—

 

What happened after that?

 

Alina grimaces again. “I tracked him for a year. Weirdest data I’ve ever had! I honestly thought maybe I’d shot some millionaire’s pet wolf. It kept going back to this house out in this backwoods neighborhood. When the team investigated a little more, it was just a regular-looking house. Nothing weird about it. It wasn’t even that fancy.”

 

“But she knew her wolf was in there,” Jeremy laughs. “My mom was furious.” 

 

— 

 

_ “They’re out there again,” Alpha Carrow growled. She let the curtain drop back into place — obscuring the full moon that illuminated the van parked next to the mailbox —  and turned to her family. “Who knows if they’re keeping to the van. They could be out in the woods. On our  _ property _.” _

 

_ Kayla — youngest in the family — groaned and dragged her half-transformed paws down her face. “ _ Thanks _ , Jay.” _

 

_ “Sorry!” Jeremy said for the thousandth time. “It’s been awhile since they came out here. Maybe they’ll leave soon?” _

 

_ “They’ll leave when they get a blip on their GPS that you’re on the move,” his dad chimed in. _

 

_ “ _ You _ go out there, Francis,” urged the alpha. “You just look like a ruffian, all fuzzed up like that— all beard and no bark. Point at the no trespassing signs, threaten to call the cops.” _

 

_ “I can be a distraction,” the man said with a determined face. “But it’s up to Jay to get a move on.” Turning to his son, he said, “Sneak out the back while they’re watching me. Get as far away from the house as you can. Lead them back to the city.” _

 

_ “Can I come back later?” Jeremy fought the urge to make puppy eyes. The rattling tag in his ear would have detracted from that anyway. _

 

_ His dad grimaced. “Give it an hour — long enough for them to track you away from here. Then meet up with us at the big rock by the riverbend and we’ll go hunting for dinner.” _

 

_ Jeremy sighed. This wasn’t the first time this had happened. It probably wouldn’t be the last.  _

  
  


—

 

So how did you two finally meet?

 

Alina finally lets go of her husband’s hand, covering her face. 

 

“Oh boy,” she groans. Jeremy pats her sympathetically. 

 

“I got the tag off.”

 

“I thought the poor animal had gotten sick or something — or maybe worse, when you combined it with our suspicions about its ownership. It hadn’t moved for days.”

 

“It wasn’t anything bad,” Jeremy assures me. “I was out for a run — you couldn’t keep me still for more than a hour in those days — and the damn thing went and snagged on a tree. Ripped right out.”

 

— 

 

_ “Oh no. Oh, shit — shit — Kayla, what do I do?!” _

 

_ “Don’t  _ bleed  _ on me, you creep!!” Kayla squealed at her brother’s bloody, outstretched hand. “Gross!” _

 

_ “I ripped it out!” Then, more urgently: “Don’t tell Mom!” _

 

_ “Why not?” Kayla sneered. “She’s wanted it out forever. Hey, Mom—” _

 

_ She squealed again when Jeremy tackled her, the bloody tag flying away into a mass of dirty laundry on the floor. _

 

_ “Don’t — say — anything!” Jeremy growled, his paw over his sister’s mouth. They grappled for a moment, Kayla squirming and scratching just a furiously as her older brother. In his hurry to shut his sister up, he half transformed. The ear that the tag had been in bled freely, the once-fine triangle of its outer edge now ragged and shiny with congealing blood. _

 

_ “Shush!” he growled once more. When Kayla finally stilled, he let her up and rolled over to look for the tag in the mess on his floor. _

 

_ “Why’d you even call me in here if you didn’t want help?” Kayla groused, wiping at her face where Jeremy’s bloody paw had smeared on it. “Just tell Mom, dumbass. She’ll know what to do.” _

 

_ “Mom’s gonna be angry at me for, uh — I don’t know, but it seems like the kind of thing she’d get mad about.” Jeremy flicked his damaged ear back and forth, fidgeting on his bed. _

 

_ “Oooooooh no,” Kayla gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. “What if they think you killed their wolf and they call the police.” She stared at her bother with wide eyes. “What if you go to  _ jail _. For  _ poaching _. Wolves are endangered, Jay!” _

 

_ Jeremy jumped in surprise, fist tightening around the bloody piece of plastic in his palm. _

 

_ “I gotta get this thing out of here.” _

 

—

 

“I buried it.”

 

“We really thought it had died. It moved into the woods, then stopped moving. Completely. Totally. By the second day we were all prepared to go and check on it, but it was on private property —”

 

“Dad had really scared them off by then.” Jeremy says with an nod.

 

“And then next thing I know — it’s moving again, and at an alarming rate. Really zooming through the woods, then — most unusually — along the roads. Through the city. Heading right. To. Us.”

 

Jeremy grimaces. “Obviously my parents were going to notice the big damn plastic tag was no longer in my ear. And mom could smell the blood, of course. Made me get stitches to try and sew up the hole.”

 

**What then?**

 

“Then I went and dug the thing up. It had a little blinky light on it. It had torn out of my ear, but the connection was still there. Still transmitting. And it had a little bit of writing on it, I guess in case someone found it and they wanted it returned.”

 

“The name of the lab I was working out of at the time,” Alina says with a nod.

 

“I figured I’d return it. And of course by that point I’d forgotten all about the nice smell in the park.”

 

Alina puts a hand over her face. “Imagine all these grad students sitting there freaking out, thinking someone had, like, skinned our wolf and was looking to sell it to someone at the university. We got all ready to call the cops and everything.”

 

“Meanwhile, I stopped to get a bouquet of flowers.”

 

Alina peeks out of her hand. “Why did you do that, Jay?”

 

Jeremy shrugs. “I dunno, I felt bad about ruining your data.”

 

“Anyway, in comes this big hobo-looking guy with a bunch of conspicuous gauze on his ear, all dressed up in mud-covered flannel and untied hiking boots —”

 

“I was a fashion icon, babe.”

 

“And he looks really confused. He’s in a conservation study lab room — so basically a cramped office with stacks of papers and one computer ten people shared — brandishing a bouquet of battered daisies and a little box.”

 

Alina’s face starts to twist into something amused.

 

“He said he found it in his backyard, and literally everyone could tell he was lying.”

 

“I wasn’t that bad!” Jeremy squawks. 

 

“Half of them literally thought you were a poacher.”

 

“And then he hands over the flowers.”

 

Jeremy grins. “You smelled way better than them. But you had nothing to put them in, so you put them in a erlenmeyer flask.”

 

“And they were so top-heavy the thing fell over. So now we have a dirty poacher, broken glass, and a bloody tag recovered at last, with an air of dark mystery over it all.”

 

“Aww, you’re such a good storyteller.” Jeremy nuzzles his wife’s head, pressing a kiss to her hairline.

 

“And he offers me dinner, of all things, as a sorry-slash-thank-you gift. With his family.”

 

Jeremy grimaces. “Looking back, it was not my smoothest moment.”

 

**But you went?**

 

Alina nods. She turns to her husband and scratches at his scarred jaw, smiling when he turns his cheek into her touch. After a moment, she speaks again.

 

“At first on a dare. We’d watched his house for a year, mind. We were all so curious about who lived in there, but we’d been warned off by the police. And then I go in, and it’s just...normal. Totally normal.”

 

Jeremy smiles again, slinging and arm around his wife. “My mom made a pot pie!”

 

**And what happened next?**

 

Alina shrugs. “I ate the pot pie. I talked to the family. Started asking questions...and eventually I got answers. Not all of them, of course. But plenty.”

 

“She’s just mad my mom never gave her the recipe.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Twitter @GoInterrobang or on tumblr at hhgggx.tumblr.com for more werewolf and original content (plus fanfic).


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